Hindrance or Accessory? : Identifying the Relationship of the Czechoslovak Communist Régime towards Alcohol Consumption in the Years 1948-1968
Abstract
The study attempts to fill a certain space within the paradigm of the activities of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia which were driven by the desire to maintain the hegemony of the ruling party. The space in question concerns the regime's relationship towards alcohol consumption.
The methodology consists of an analysis of certain risks and gains associated with the consumption of alcoholic beverages. The Communist regime was albe to reflect upon them, which was in their own interest.
Next, certain anti-alcohol measures are examined, as well as key interventions in production and distribution of alcoholic beverages, in order to confront them with the publically proclaimed goals in the area of anti-alcohol efforts and the resulting figures of alcohol consumption. The final aspects of the separately analysed relationship of the Communist regime towards alcohol consumption cannot, when considered in isolation, identify key factors that supported the legitimacy of Communist rule, but they do offer valuable insight into one of the channels that make up the complicated structure of bilateral channels of the Communist regime and society.